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Destination and stays in Beaujolais
Destination and stays in Beaujolais Route des vins Group Séminaires

Claude Chappe's telegraph tower

  • Marcy

Route de Montézain
69480 Marcy

Get there (GPS) cotetour,cotetour,fr Website

A square tower made of gilded stones covered with a structure composed of three movable levers. This quick means of long-distance communication invented by Claude Chappe lasted from 1794 to 1852. The telegraph network consists of 5,000 km of lines.

The Chappe Telegraph (fully restored in 2022) is a 4-metre square, 6-metre high golden stone building, topped by a mechanism consisting of 3 moving arms used to form and transmit coded aerial signals. This tower, the 55th station out of 58 on the Paris-Lyon line, was commissioned in 1805 and extended as far as Venice. This formidable means of communication, invented by Claude Chappe in 1793, ceased to operate in 1854. The French telegraph network was 5,000 km long, with 535 stations serving 29 towns.
Interpretation and information panels outside explain how the tower and the telegraph network worked.

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Spoken languages

  • fr

Equipment

  • Car park
  • Coach parking
  • Parking nearby
  • Picnic area
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Services

  • Coach access
  • Guided tours
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Opening hours

From 28/04 to 28/09, daily 3pm-6pm guided tours. For groups contact by email.